With a view to curb blackmarketing of hand sanitisers and masks amid the increasing fear of coronavirus in the national Capital, the Food and Supply Minister Imran Hussian on Monday held a meeting with senior officers of Legal Metrology Department and reviewed compliance of packaged commodity rules in regard to sale of essential medical commodities by chemists, retailers, shopkeepers, manufacturers, traders etc.
He directed senior officers to immediately depute all the field functionaries to various parts of Delhi to check the instances of overcharging of prices beyond Maximum Retail Price (MRP) and to take punitive action against chemists, dealers, retailers, shopkeepers, manufacturers, traders who are found indulging in fraudulent activities during the sale of such essential and vital items as face masks, surgical masks, hand sanitisers, other medicines being used for control and prevention of spread of COVID -19, Corona virus.
Since sanitiser has been declared as essential commodity under the Essential Commodities Act and action can be taken against dealers involved in hoarding and black-marketing of sanitizers.
“Overcharging means a consumer is charged more than the MRP. For the offence, the retailer/manufacturer/traders will be prosecuted under Legal Metrology Act, 2009 and the Packaged Commodities Rules, 2011, a Government official said, “Legal Metrology Department has also been tasked for enforcing compliance of Packaged Commodity Rules and also to educate citizen customers about mandatory declarations on the packaged commodities i.e. the name and address of the manufacturer / packer / importer, the common name of the product in the package, the net quantity, month and year of manufacturing or pre-packing, MRP (inclusive of all taxes) and name, address, telephone number of the person who can be contacted by the consumer in case of a complaint.”
The meeting was attended by Secretary (Legal Metrology), Controller (Legal Metrology), Assistant Commissioner (Legal Metrology) and other officers of the Department.